Sibel Edmonds Testimony

Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI-contract translator under a gag order for her whistleblowing, has testified under oath numerous times – in secret. She has told much of her story in bits and pieces appearing in articles, interviews and .jpg files over the years, but, for whatever technical reasons, she was finally allowed, on August 8, to talk openly about what she knows despite the “state’s secrets” doctrine – all under oath, at one time and place, and for the public record.

Let’s take a look at what was so important that the previous administration turned their own employee into the “most gagged person in U.S. history.”

Author: Scott Horton

Scott Horton is Managing Director of The Libertarian Institute, host of Antiwar Radio for Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles and KUCR 88.3 in Riverside, podcasts the Scott Horton Show from scotthorton.org, and is the Editorial Director of Antiwar.com. He’s conducted more than 4,500 interviews since 2003. He is also the author of Fool's Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan (2017).
View all posts by Scott Horton

29 thoughts on “Sibel Edmonds Testimony”

Pages 23-26: Edmonds discloses that a woman named Dickerson was hired by the FBI to do translation even though she had worked for Turkish organizations that were the targets of ongoing FBI counter-intelligence operations. Dickerson's husband works for Doug Feith. Edmonds reports Dickerson's conflicts of interest to her superiors.

Pages 31-39: The Dickersons attempt to recruit Edmonds into the Turkish American Council–one of the targets of the FBI–by promising her various benefits and monetary gain. Edmonds reports this to her superiors.

The picture that seems to be emerging, based on what I've read about this subject before, is that a spy ring of Turks and Israelis were involved in obtaining nuclear weapons secrets from the US (among other nefarious activities) and people within the US government were helping their infiltration–either because they were bribed or had a loyalty to Israel.

Page 59: She starts talking about Marc Grossman (formerly third-ranking official in the State Department) who in the summer of 2001 disclosed to the Turkish Embassy and the Turkish American Council that Brewster Jennings (Valerie Plame Wilson's outfit) was a CIA front company and it was zeroing in on the activities of the Turkish American Council. (Brewster Jennings was set up to stop nuclear weapons proliferation.)

Pages 46-49: She says Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (Illinois) were involved in illegal activities on behalf of foreign interests. Both accepted bribes from Turkish lobbyists. Hastert was the bag man to deliver bribes to other members of Congress. Some Congressmen were blackmailed into supporting certain positions.

Pages: 50-51: Former Rep. (NY) Stephen Solarz is working as a lobbyist for Turkish interests and is involved in illegal activities. Hastert is now also a lobbyist for Turkey.

Pages 52-53: Former Rep. (LA) Bob Livingston (who almost became Speaker instead of Hastert) is another one of the crooks and has been involved as a money laundering operative.

Page 55: I'm starting this section now. Here's where she confirms that the FBI, State Department and Pentagon have been infiltrated by a Turkish and Israeli spy ring that bribes high-ranking government officials (mostly presidential (Bush) appointees) into stealing nuclear weapons secrets. The RAND Corporation is also involved.

These secrets don't just go to Turkey and Israel, but are sold internationally to the highest bidder, whether that be Pakistan or someone else.

Ms. Edmonds is merely confirming what we've known all along: that we have the best Congress money can buy. That fat tub-o-lard Hastert is making a fortune when he should be spending the rest of his life in jail for treason.

It sure is comforting to know that the American taxpayer is footing the bill to pay Israel to spy on us and endanger our lives by spreading nuclear secrets to some rather disreputable foreign interests. With friends like these….

thanks heathcliff for the summary. It is alot more interesting and pertinent than I thought it was. I had been under the impression that it was just a bunch of stuff about the armenian genocide resolution and this and that about turkey. obviously it's way bigger than that

Pgs. 70-87 contain lawyers' objections and arguments and further elaboration on Congressional bribes.

Pgs. 88-102: Turkey's GOVERNMENT (a NATO member) has been involved since the mid-1990's in practices inimical to American interests that have cost American lives. They were directly supporting al Qaida by supplying false passports and sending them to Central Asian countries to promote Islamization and set up madrasahs. They also sent mujahideen to Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the UNITED STATES. Corrupt Americans were also involved in these operations. Secrets were sold to the highest bidder, whether nation-states or individuals. Turkey was also involved in shipping heroin out of Asia and to the US and Belgium.

A man named Fetullah Gulan was a central figure in this, but ended up on Turkey's most-wanted list when he plotted to overthrow its secular government. (What goes around comes around.) He got a visa and still lives in the US. He has set up madrasahs and Islamic universities in the US, is a danger to US security interests (recruits and trains terrorists), but is being protected because of his connections to oil and gas interests in Central Asia.

Dang, I think Justin's Bizzaro World is nearing completion. The ad I'm getting at the top of this page is for Circuit City. Didn't they go bankrupt or is this yet another Bizzaro Bernanke green shoot? Maybe we can all go down to the local Circus City and buy some US nuke secrets.

Circuit City only exists as an online store. I don't know if someone bought rights to the name or if it was split off from the main corporation before the bankruptcy.

One thing that should be pointed out is that not everything Edmonds testified to was learned by her during her employ by the FBI. Some of it she learned through her work with organizations to protect whistle blowers and the first amendment rights of reporters. Anything she testified to was information she could corroborate from other sources (including public records) if it was not something she learned directly.

Page 103 starts cross-examination. The attorney basically tries to undermine Edmonds' credibility and expertise. There is much wrangling between lawyers over what questions can be asked and how. The cross-examining attorney tends to ask unclear and compound questions.

Page 144 starts a line of questioning about what Edmonds meant by "the government of Turkey" and whether other governments were involved. On page 148 she clarifies, "certain individuals and operatives with official capacity, and that official capacity being the employees and members of Turkish government." Later she indicates that money originating from the Turkish government would be donated to US politicians through PACs. Individual Turkish-American citizens would receive, then donate the money in amounts under $200 to the PAC that would then give it to the candidate.

As for other governments being involved, she identifies the Israel Lobby but not the Israeli government. She also says "certain individuals" within the Pakistan embassy, but these may be rogues.

Pg. 64: The Israeli government is not directly involved in the spy ring, but works through proxies in AIPAC and JINSA.

Pg. 66: In April 2001, an Iranian source provides warning that al Qaida plans to hijack airliners and fly them into buildings in multiple American cities.

Pg. 68-69: Rep. Tom Lantos (CA, now dead) took bribes and gave highly classified weapons secrets and other intelligence to Israel and Turkey. Rep. Roy Blunt (MO) is another.

Pg. 69-70: An unnamed, married-with-children Congresswoman who is secretly bisexual was videotaped having a lesbian affair with a Turkish spy to blackmail her. Edmonds declines to identify her because she doesn't know if the Congresswoman was subsequently involved in any illegal activity.

It's interesting that this latest installment of the Sibel Edmonds story came out only because of the Armenian genocide issue (that is, Congressional candidate David Krikorian charged Cong. Jean Schmidt with taking Turkish money and opposing the Armenian genocide resolution in Congress.)
Krikorian then called in Sibel to back up his story.

How sad that Antiwar.com has barely ever acknowledged the Armenian issue.

How sad, too, that Antiwar.com has barely ever covered the hypocritical collusion between the pro-Israel lobby (it's a no-no to say "Jewish lobby" on Antiwar even though Justin Raimondo has himself belittled that taboo) and Turkey to stop US re-affirmation of the Armenian genocide.

Even a lot of the mainstream press covered the Anti-Defamation League's getting slammed for the past two years for working with Turkey in precisely that way. But not so Antiwar.com. Gee whiz, I wonder why.

Please visit http://www.NoPlaceForDenial.com. Click on "News Archive" and "Timeline." And also go to the "Q and A" on that website and then get to the section titled "The History of Lobbying against Genocide Recognition." The disgraceful story of the Turkish – Jewish lobbies' collusion in regard to genocide denial is documented very well there.
Now, given what Sibel has said about the collusion between Turkish and Jewish/Israeli entities in terms of espionage and other illegal activities in the US, one would think that a non-mainstream media outlet like Antiwar.com would have been interested in the Armenian angle. But no. Gee whiz, I wonder why. Let's ponder that one for a while.

The lobby is properly called the Israel Lobby because not all Jews live in Israel and not all Jews support Israel's policies. Not everyone who lobbies on behalf of Israel is Jewish. Did you ever hear of Christian Zionists?

The actions of Israel and its lobby in the United States are what are relevant, not whether those involved are Jewish.

Greek groups in DC are termed the Greek lobby, even though they have no connection to the Greek government and do not represent all Greek Americans.

The Armenian groups in Washington are termed the Armenian lobby, even though they have no connection to the Armenian government and do not represent all Armenian Americans. Armenian groups lobby quite a bit on domestic issues, such as the Sibel Edmonds case and genocide education. It is justified to call them the Armenian lobby,

The Anti-Defamation League is one of those groups that is specifically Jewish American by its own admission and that directly influences American policy not only on Israel but on such things as Holocaust legislation, and various domestic laws and policies in the US itself.

The ADL also tries very hard to stop any legislation in Congress acknowledging the genocide of the Armenian people. That is what http://www.NoPlaceforDenial.com has exposed.

That is, The ADL's actions do not just concern Israel but also concern Jewish American issues.

The ADL is, therefore, part of what can truly be termed the "Jewish lobby."

Should an Italian lobby be called the Catholic lobby? Should the Saudi lobby be called the Muslim lobby? Shouldn't it be called the Greek Orthodox Catholic lobby instead of the Greek lobby?

The ADL, by the way, seems to be only one person: Abe Foxman. It doesn't surprise me that he would be on the side of the Turkish government because that government is friendly to Israel. Foxman is a racist without any moral principles. He is obsessed with making Israel blameless and smearing as an anti-Semite anyone who criticizes Israel's reprehensible actions.

While I know by now it shouldn't, it *still* surprises me when something of such potential significance and at least seeming accuracy emerges — and is resoundingly ignored by the US media. Too bad Edmonds couldn't figure out a way to tie Michael Jackson into this, or too bad no one managed to chuck a print-out of the transcript over the wall around Phillip Garrido's backyard.

there is a determined effort by the Turkish lobby to ridicule Edmnds, go to the tca website, or read the ravings of its PresidentElect Ergun Kirlikovali. Mr. Kirlikovali also spends his ample free time filling the web with vile racist posts ridiculing the Armenan dead of 1915 as vermin and trators.